Reading a great book transports you to another world, doesn’t it? I can recall many excellent books I’ve read not for the structure, dialogue or setting, but because of the way the author made me feel. Books like Rebecca, Life of Pi, Mrs. Mike, The Help, left me changed, my emotions altered. These authors were able to accomplish this feat, I believe, because they were moved by their own creations, changed by the stories they wanted to tell. I recently read an anecdote about Alfred Hitchcock who never sat in the audience to watch his films. When asked, “Don’t you miss hearing them scream?” he replied, “I can hear them when I’m making the picture.”

What books/films have moved you?

What would it be like to live without fear? I can’t imagine. It was truly a privilege to read a book about a man who lived his life and faced his death without fear, as did Navy Seal Adam Brown. What makes this book remarkable is not so much the achievements of this elite soldier, but the incredible obstacles, including addiction, that plagued him all his life and the strength he drew from the Lord to overcome. This is a book filled that evokes laughter, tears, awe and most of all, respect for a man who lived and died for others.

Gold, silver, bronze. It takes a powerful book to reach award winning levels and it requires an extraordinary one to reach that top tier of the literary podium. Having just finished listening to the audio version of Gold: A Novel, by Chris Cleave, I am struck by the power of the story, the struggle of Olympian level cyclists to both realize their athletic dreams and carve out a life outside of the arena. The complications of illness, childhood tragedy, the perilous position of the athlete whose success is measure by the tiniest units of time all add intrigue and provide a brisk pace to the novel. What makes this book unforgettable is  experiencing the characters through the lens of both world class athlete, and ordinary men and women who must weave the two disparate pieces of their live together if they are to achieve that golden outcome. Watching them strive to do so is more compelling than the most riveting Olympic matchup.

Helen Simonson pens the tale of an unlikely relationship between a proper English Colonel (retired) and Mrs. Ali, a Pakistani shopkeeper. The colonel’s struggle with his own prejudices and those of his village community and Mrs. Ali’s own difficulty with her strict family traditions set the stage for a page turner of a novel. Never maudlin, this story is ripe with wonderful humor, including the Colonel’s desperate attempts to retain his starchy dignity in the face of constant challenges from the colorful townsfolk and his own materialistic son. The writing is lyrical and lovely and the clear eyed truths in the novel will stay with the reader long after the final page is turned. Bravo, Ms. Simonson.

This is a wonderful devotional by Charles F. Stanley. Each day features a scripture reading and key verse followed by Stanley’s easy to follow, heartfelt anecdotes and words of wisdom.

Dear Mr. Coben;

I would just like to inform you that I am cranky this morning and there are sizeable bags underneath my eyes. Oh yes, I knew it was a bad idea to start reading your newest book, Caught, late in the afternoon.  Bad idea, bad idea, yet I still couldn’t resist and I continued not resisting until sometime after midnight. And the first line? I knew opening that red door would destroy my life? Was there really any way I could not be sucked into the story? I would like to say, for the record, I figured out the mystery around page 150. Then again on page 250 and again forty pages after that and finally the light dawned on page 438, the last one. Is that really quite fair, Mr. Coben? To write a book so filled with twists, turns and loop de loops that the poor reader is never sure until the very last paragraph wherein lies the truth? And the characters, Mr. Coben. Perhaps you could throw in a few of the cardboard variety instead of these fully fleshed, fully flawed types hiding secrets that are delicately teased out over the course of this maddening novel? Really, Mr. Coben, is it strictly necessary to toy with the reader in this way? And the absolute crumb on the cake, Mr. Coben, was the cruel way you inserted the chapter of Live Wire, your next installment, at the back. That was just beyond the pale. Imagine how many hours of sleep I’m going to lose  over that one. Please, Mr. Coben, at least have the decency to put a warning on the cover. DO NOT START THIS BOOK LATE IN THE DAY. Tired readers all over America will thank you.

Sincerely,

Dana Mentink

I’ve just enjoyed a jolly holiday with Mr. Van Dyke. His memoir, My Lucky Life in and Out of Show Business, is a fascinating journey through the up and down adventures of this star. From his beginnings as a small town boy in Danville, Illinois, to the heights of his success as Bert in Mary Poppins and Rob in the unparalleled Dick Van Dyke show, his life was a fantastic mixture of heartache and happiness. What struck me the most about his story was his decision as a young man to only make movies that he would be proud to take his children to see. His mother told him that he was a good boy and he decided he would always try to remain that way. Can you imagine such a decision in the ‘anything goes’ environment of Hollywood? In the sixties? I was amazed. So was Walt Disney. He read an interview in which Dick communicated his philosophy and he was so impressed he offered him the role of Bert. Mr. Van Dyke’s life was not without disappointment both personally and professionally, and going along with him down memory lane is a jolly holiday indeed.

At this stage in my life I’ve made it a point to spend more time in Bible study. That leaves less time for fiction so I was pleased to find a book that combined both in Liz Curtis Higg’s, Bad Girls of the Bible. The book takes a close look at ten sinful women from Eve to Jezebel, analyzing their fall and in some cases, restoration. Each passage starts with a modern, fictionalized account which puts the woman’s life in a more relatable context. I found the format engaging and instructive. The study guide was not your usual mundane questions, but topics which caused me to wrestle with my own choices. Maybe the best recommendation for the book that I could give is that I found my teen daughter perusing it with great interest each evening. A book that blends humor, fiction, biblical study with the power to draw  in adults AND teens? That gets a two thumbs up from this reader.

We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.

Skeeter, a young college graduate, begins to ponder such thoughts in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. It’s 1962 and the lines are strongly drawn dividing whites and blacks. In her novel, The Help, Kathryn Stockett paints a vivid portrait of life on both sides of that divide through characters like Aibileen, a black domestic, who has spent a lifetime loving the children she tends, until those children are old enough to adopt the prejudiced beliefs of their parents. Aibileen’s friends are passionate, long suffering, sassy, smart and their experiences are alternately horrific and hilarious. Equally as fascinating are the  white characters they serve and endure, the insufferable Miss Hilly and her Home Help Sanitation Initiative and the tackily dressed Miss Celia ,who wants desperately to fit in, yet cannot grasp the unwritten rules of Jackson society.

In a tempestuous time when black civil rights leaders are being murdered and the price of rebellion is often death, Skeeter embarks on a bold plan, to pen a book of stories detailing the experiences of black domestics. The risk unthinkably high; discovery will mean social annihilation for Skeeter and ruin for her black co conspirators. The characters are searingly real on both sides of the racial divide and the plot twists and unexpected revelations keep the reader mesmerized through all four hundred plus pages. Stockett’s work is graceful and vivid, a riveting journey into a world where human potential is limited but the courage to dream of a better way is not.

I’m a thrill seeker….in my reading, anyway. Usually I jump into a nice mystery or suspense, but after hearing so many positive comments about Crossing Oceans, by Gina Holmes, I decided to give it a whirl. There’s plenty going on in this novel. Protagonist Jenny returns home to rebuild bridges with her estranged father and David, the father of Jenny’s child Isabella who doesn’t know the girl exists. Sounds like there’s plenty of room for conflict? Absolutely and that would be enough for a mediocre novel, but Holmes gives the reader so much more. Jenny is dying of a terminal illness, so the stakes of her end of life decisions are sky high.

I’ve heard it said that Christian fiction is trite, predictable, preachy with too perfect characters leading too perfect lives. Holmes avoids all those stereotypical pitfalls. Her protag is real, so real that she reacts to her situation with anger, resentment, and completely believable mistakes. Isabella’s father David is a frustrating, arrogant man whose selfishness gets in the way of his potential relationship with his daughter. The gritty, real life characters take their own wobbly steps towards reconciliation, sometimes forward, sometimes back. There is no deus ex machina to provide a miraculous rescue or cure and therein lies the real strength of the novel. It is a poignant, beautifully written story of a woman coming to terms with her earthly life and the true meaning of salvation.